Fasting and Character-Building Fasting and Self-Discipline

successful life in this world by keeping his negative feelings under control. Negative feelings, it must be remembered, present the greatest obstacle to human progress. Fasting is the pious way to solve the biggest of all human problems. According to a tradition of the Prophet of Islam: “There is a Zakat for all things, and the Zakat of the body is fasting.” (Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith No. 1745) Here, the expression Zakat is used in the sense of purification. There is, indeed, a way of purifying everything. Just as bathing purifies the body, so fasting purifies the soul. According to a Hadith, Prophet Muhammad observed: “Whenever one of you is invited to a meal while he is on a fast, he should inform his host that he is fasting.” (Sahih Muslim, Hadith No. 1150) The Prophet of Islam gave this very sound advice: “Whenever one of you is on a fast, he should be soft in his demeanour. In the event of being abused or provoked, he should simply say that he is on a fast.” (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith No. 1894) Leading a life of restraint for a whole month produces a transformation in one’s thinking. It enables one to offer a positive response to another’s negative behaviour. Even strong abuse and other types of provocation will not goad the fasting believer into retaliating in the same coin. Rather than sink to that level, he will simply explain that he is on a fast. His own heart tells him that by observing a fast he has pledged himself to piety and in view of that, he cannot contemplate any evil action. In this way, fasting inculcates in man the necessity to abstain at all costs from anti-social activities, and from all ungentlemanly words and deeds. He is thus brought to a life of moral restraint in this world. Fasting, in teaching a person self-discipline, lead to selfpurification, that is purifying oneself of all negativities.